Bratislava, 17 June 2013: One year ago yesterday an off-duty municipal police officer shot three Romani individuals dead and seriously injured two others in a killing spree in the town of Hurbanovo He was sentenced to just nine years in prison The minimal penalty under the Slovak Penal Code for this crime is 25 years During his examination for the purpose of expert opinion he frequently stated his calling to ‘solve the Roma problem’ and to ‘finally deal with the Roma in Hurbanovo’ no racial motivation was considered during the case The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the lawyers representing the victims believe that this judgment does not establish justice submitted a Constitutional complaint on 24 May 2013 to the Slovak Constitutional Court challenging the judgment and claiming that proceedings before the Special Criminal Court and its ruling were not in line with the Code of Criminal Procedure the Slovak Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights pointing out the shortcomings of the Special Court’s proceedings and judgment and asking for their advocacy to establish justice for the victims The Roma Parliament in Slovakia have launched a petition calling on the Ministry of Justice to re-open the case The surviving family members have limited standing at the penal court proceedings and their perspective and interests were not adequately considered by the court during the Juhasz case “State authorities have a duty to investigate racial motivation in any crime and to sentence appropriately,“ said Dezideriu Gergely “This sentence undermines the confidence of minorities in the ability of state authorities to protect them from the threat of racist violence Site Map | Privacy | Permissions | Copyright © 2025 ERRC The Specialised Criminal Court sends Alena Zsuzsová to prison for ordering the murder of former Hurbanovo mayor Alena Zsuzsová is guilty of ordering the murder of the mayor of the southern-Slovak town of Hurbanovo The Specialised Criminal Court gave its verdict on December 4 2020 and sentenced Zsuzsová to 21 years in prison in the case of the premeditated murder of László Basternák Zsuzsová has also been suspected of ordering the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak, during which his fiancée Martina Kušnírová was also killed. The Specialised Criminal Court has stripped her of charges in that case and the verdict has been appealed Zsuzsová has also been charged with preparing the murders of lawyer Daniel Lipšic, prosecutor Peter Šufliarsky, and the recently-elected new general prosecutor Maroš Žilinka The rest of this article is premium content at Spectator.skSubscribe now for full access Immediate access to all locked articles (premium content) on Spectator.sk Special weekly news summary + an audio recording with a weekly news summary to listen to at your convenience (received on a weekly basis directly to your e-mail) PDF version of the latest issue of our newspaper Access to all premium content on Sme.sk and Korzar.sk Astronomers of the Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo photographed a falling meteor in mid-April The so-called bolide - a very bright meteor - was captured by the camera of the AllSky7 observation network on April 17 at 21:47 CEST Astronomer Peter Dolinský from the Hurbanovo observatory confirmed this but was also seen in the sky in western Slovakia According to Pavel Spurný from the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Ondřejov it lit up 88 kilometres above the earth's surface and went out at an altitude of 34 kilometres The Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo has several video cameras at its disposal; they use the German AllSky7 system with seven cameras to observe objects in the sky "The cameras capture the entire sky," explains Dolinský "You can only get so much data from using one camera But the position in space cannot be determined since we don't know how far the object flew," he continues He compares it to the motion of an airplane Astronomers therefore use observation from several stations the distance of the object can be determined by triangulation deceleration and density of the meteor can be determined the approximate mass of the body can also be determined," Peter Dolinský describes the calculations A bolide occurs when a space body penetrates the atmosphere at a high speed the body heats up and starts to evaporate and disperse It tends to disintegrate into fine dust that slowly falls to the ground," says Dolinský if the body is sufficiently massive and compact part of it will "survive" the flight through the atmosphere and fall to the earth's surface as a meteorite Then it can be physically found on the ground The brightness of a meteor strongly depends on its mass "If it's about as bright as a full moon it can be assumed that something will definitely hit the ground That was also the case with this meteor." the bolide that flew over Moravia weighed about 700 grams when it entered the atmosphere "These smaller bodies disintegrate at a height of about 20 to 30 kilometres above the surface of the earth Then they fall at a speed of a few hundred kilometres per hour They might be able to break a window upon impact The impact of larger pieces weighing a hundred grams or more could be bad even at a lower speed But even that would be insufficient to create a crater," says Dolinský The Supreme Court sentenced Alena Zsuzsová to 21 years in prison for murdering the former mayor of Hurbanovo Alena Zsuzsová, who faces charges related to the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancée Martina Kušnírová Often described as a decoy of mobster Marian Kočner who is said to have ordered Kuciak’s murder Zsuzsová heard the verdict of the Supreme Court She has been sentenced to 21 years in a maximum-security prison for the murder of László Basternák Roman Ostružlík and Vladimír Mosnár were also sentenced to 21 years for their involvement They are also required to pay €10,000 in compensation to Basternák’s bereaved, the Sme daily reported The Supreme Court in fact confirmed an earlier verdict of the Specialised Criminal Court from last December. The verdict is now valid “The Supreme Court agreed with the first-instance court and concluded that the substantiation was made in a very detailed and legal way and no procedural mistakes were revealed,” said Judge Jana Serbová Local production of malting barley does not cover the demand Slovak malt has become an important export commodity in recent years Slovakia is one of the 10 largest exporters of this commodity in the world Hurbanovo-based Heineken Slovakia Sladovne It cites data of the Slovak Association of Beer and Malt Producers (SZVPS) showing that Slovakia produced more malt than wheat in 2023 As much as 80 percent of produced malt goes abroad The malt house located in eastern Slovakia highlighted the importance of cooperation with domestic barley growers.  “Our goal is to build long-term and successful partnerships with growers,” Tomáš Ševčík field days and events where farmers learn about the latest cultivation practices and the importance of sustainable agriculture.”  Sustainability is linked to new technologies in the production of malt and beer as well as in the cultivation of malting barley which reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions One example of alternative cultivation is the introduction of autumn sowing of spring varieties of malting barley which increases the crop’s resilience to climate change.  which was developed in cooperation with our growers more than 10 years ago has several advantages,” explained Ševčík “It improves grain quality and contributes to the diversification of agricultural production we are trying to develop the right varietal composition that is resistant to extreme weather fluctuations and thus spread the risk of reduced yields.”  The growing demand for quality beer and the increasing interest in local products create excellent conditions for Slovak malt houses “We believe that Slovak malt will continue to be one of the leaders on the European market,” concluded Ševčík.  The brewing industry is the fourth largest sector of the Slovak food industry with sales of around €400 million Butchers are the top sector with sales of around €800 million dairy farmers are second with €600 million and the third largest sector is the bakery confectionery and pasta sector with an annual turnover of around €500 million executive director of the Slovak Association of Beer and Malt Producers (SZVPS) Slovakia is the fifth largest malt exporter in the European Union in terms of volume and sixth in terms of value it is one of the 10 largest exporters of this commodity “Slovak malt is exported to the whole of central Europe and the Balkans and is used by almost every major brewery in the region,” said Machalík “We have as many as seven malt houses in Slovakia which is a considerable number for such a territory.”  Slovakia produces around 290,000 tonnes malting of malt a year About 380,000 tonnes of this barley variety are needed to produce this amount but Slovakia does not produce it in such quantities Although there are hundreds of malting barley growers in the country their production is not sufficient to meet the demand In order to be able to produce and export malt in the quantities mentioned above Slovak malt houses need to import 60,000-80,000 tonnes of malting barley mainly from Hungary and the Czech Republic PLANS to lay a memorial plaque calling for religious tolerance on the 400th anniversary of the burning of the first known Bratislava witch may fail due to opposition from the Bratislava Regional Conservation Office (KPÚ).The civic association Spoločnosť Uroboros had intended to hold a meeting in the city centre on May 24 to light candles in memory of Borlobaschin who was condemned to the stake for allegedly communing with a devil named Peen The group had also wanted to fix a bronze plaque to the pavement at the corner of Michalská Street and Hurbanovo Square in the downtown core UROBOROS deputy chair Mária Turanská speaks about plaque placement (inset).photo: Ján Svrček may fail due to opposition from the Bratislava Regional Conservation Office (KPÚ) The civic association Spoločnosť Uroboros had intended to hold a meeting in the city centre on May 24 to light candles in memory of Borlobaschin The group had also wanted to fix a bronze plaque to the pavement at the corner of Michalská Street and Hurbanovo Square in the downtown core But the conservation authority has said that the plaque would highlight a period of the city's history which was not characteristic of Bratislava Its refusal to support the project came as a surprise to Uroboros especially after Bratislava Old Town City Council the Bratislava Town Hall's construction section the Slovak Historical Society and the Slovak Academy of Sciences okayed the project Approval from all five bodies is needed to mount such plaques KPÚ head Marián Havlík said the plaque was "unsuitable from the socio-ideological point of view because it stresses an episode of the city's history which has little significance and is being taken out of context" who died at a stake erected midway between today's Župné and Hurbanovo squares on May 24 was tortured and forced to admit to communing with a devil and blinding a woman by sewing shut the eye of a toad Havlík refused further comment on his decision saying that only KPÚ Director Katarína Kosová was authorised to give statements to the media said that she could not provide an official statement until the results of an appeal by Uroboros are known Uroboros submitted the appeal to the KPÚ on May 14 hoping that it would be decided within 15 days Historical sources confirm Havlík's statement that Bratislava was not the centre for witch hunting in the Middle Ages on Slovak territory (see related article But Uroboros vice-chair Mária Turanská argued that her group did not want to paint Bratislava as a persecutor of witches She said the plaque was intended as a warning that even in the 21st century many people still faced discrimination for their religion "The commemoration is not a glorification of this particular person but rather an appeal to strengthen tolerance among people races and cultures," Turanská said adding that her group saw the witch as a symbol of what can happen as a result of religious fanaticism Uroboros will meet on May 24 in the late afternoon to light candles and will ask the owner of the nearby Café Regina restaurant to hang the plaque temporarily in its front window The 40-by-75 centimetre (15-by-30 inch) bronze relief plaque was designed by local sculptor Ľudmila Cvengrošová Turanská said it portrayed part of the historical area in front of Michalská Gate and a woman burning at the stake in the background says "In commemoration of the first witch burned in Bratislava." "We wanted to make the plaque attractive and legible for tourists who visit the city," Turanská said a historian and editor in chief of the História magazine said he could not understand why the KPÚ opposed the plate "I don't understand why the KPÚ was against the project I didn't understand the arguments they presented What is a socio-ideological point of view anyway?" Segeš prepared the Slovak Historical Society's approving stance on the project This particular period was a sad one but we can't delete it The Inquisition was a general phenomenon across Europe in the Middle Ages We can't pretend that it didn't exist here," Segeš said.